Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Local resistance has already won one skirmish ... take this national!

Here's an off-the-shelf resistance project that people in cities and towns seeking to be "sanctuary cities" can and should get moving on ASAP. You can learn not only why, but how, at TrumpINTELPro.

Those of us who've been around for awhile remember when the U.S. government, in the form the F.B.I., was at war with the civil rights movement, the Black Liberation struggle especially the National of Islam, the American Indian Movement, and the anti-Vietnam war movement. COINTELPRO tried to shame the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into committing suicide by sending him audio tapes from bugged rooms where he'd had sexual trysts. There is evidence that the F.B.I. had a role in the assassination of Malcolm X. This was not "intelligence" gathering; the F.B.I. was in the business of playing dirty tricks on citizens with anti-government political opinions. Targets died.

TrumpINTELPro explains that the new President has promised to bring this kind of government repression of "enemies" back.

Donald Trump is implementing Putin's KGB tactics; he seeks to fulfill promises of unlawfully using FBI resources by creating a Muslim registry, deporting millions of innocent undocumented people, and disrupting constitutionally protected activism. We chose the name "TRUMPINTELPRO" because we’re prepared to make him own his carnage, and this legacy, by placing it all in his name.

... Many cities across the country have sanctuary laws that protect immigrant community members, Muslims, and protesters. These laws are designed to protect local police officers from doing dirty work for ICE and the FBI. The current administration is attacking these cities. Donald has already signed an executive order threatening to strip billions in federal funds from sanctuary cities across the country. ... We are ALL at risk. As Americans in this moment, we must unite and rally in allegiance to the laws that Trump is so determined to ignore.

Many local police departments have already been pulled into working with the federal government through Joint Terrorism Task Forces. Participation in these JTTFs is voluntary for cities, but most do. Police departments lend officers to the feds; this is how the F.B.I. extends itself into thousands of communities which they would otherwise never have the manpower or information to touch.

[Under existing laws,] the FBI can spy on us, putting informants in our places of worship and harassing us at home or work, even if they have zero evidence that we have done something wrong. In fact, they can do this even if they KNOW that we have done nothing wrong. And, yes, they are doing this to people all across the country. ... Trump's plans for religious and race-based profiling depend deeply on this partnership.

... Here's the real shady part: The FBI usually won’t allow officers to tell their supervisors what they are working on. Therefore, there is no real way to locally track what the officers are doing or to make sure that they are not violating state or city law. ... we have seen that the JTTF is behind much of the FBI's unchecked harm to American residents.

But the federal government is not paying for local cops lent to the JTTFs. We can set the rules for their participation.

Let’s make sure that anytime our local police work with the FBI, it is on our terms. Let’s make sure that our voices are heard by demanding officers follow the laws that we have established.

Protect our officers! Give them something clear to point to if and when the FBI asks that they violate a state or local law. It is the officer's duty to follow said laws; however, in all likelihood, the FBI doesn’t know or care about enforcing them. Still, officers that aren't compliant with local or state law could face lawsuits. Requiring that police adhere foremost to our local law actually benefits the community and the police.

TrumpINTELPro outlines how to get your local police out of the business of helping the F.B.I. to repress dissent. If our local assertion of "sanctuary" for Muslims, immigrants, LGBT people and whoever else the Donald attacks is to be meaningful in the days to come, this is vital.

This campaign can be won. We know that because the prototype campaign has been won in San Francisco. And such a campaign puts all law enforcement on notice that local citizens expect them to abide by the decisions of local governments and to obey the laws. TrumpINTELPro teaches how to take such a campaign national.

Resist and protect much.

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